Forests and chaparral will regrow eventually, houses can be rebuilt, and roads repaired, but we don’t usually think of wildfires permanently altering aquifers and eliminating bodies of water like the reservoir (above) and mitigation wetlands in the valley miles beyond the burn scar. Yet the Camp Fire continues to set precedent for extreme consequences and by the end of 2019 the reservoir shown in the photo will be dry.
The reservoir depends on water from six miles of flumes built 150 years ago to support the hydraulic mines at Cherokee*, another 3 miles further downstream of the reservoir. I know these flumes as do many other local residents because they are a favored hiking route and allow access to the river down steep trails. Newts use the canal in spring breeding time. Kunkle Resevoir’s upland edges and the mitigation wetlands in the valley are areas I’ve crawled through for years, exploring the plants and animals. They aren’t yet gone, but their death knell is sounding.
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The flumes and associated canal move water from the West Branch Feather River (at 1550 feet elevation) along the steep slopes of the canyon wall to Kunkle Reservoir (1420 feet elevation) and then three miles further south to Cherokee (about 1200 feet).
After the Cherokee hydraulic mines were abandoned, PG&E took over the flume/canal system for power plants near Kunkle (Lime Saddle) and near Cherokee (Coal Canyon). The Coal Canyon plant has been unused for years and PG&E says the Lime Saddle plant wasn’t economical before the fire. Twenty-six properties (ranches and olive orchards) have contracts to take water from the canal system. Seepage from the canal has altered the aquifers in the area and created wetlands so the lack of this water potentially affects a thousand properties. Before the fire, PG&E intended to abandon the flumes. Now they have no plans to rebuild them. The estimated cost to rebuild the upper six miles of flumes is $15 million.
This is what the flumes looked like before the fire.
“It’s a human-made system that has taken on a life of its own,” [Paul Gosselin, director of the county Department of Water and Resource Conservation] told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.
He said there are reports that the effects may stretch as far as Highway 99. The habitat created at Highways 70 and 149 to mitigate the impacts of widening Highway 149, is dependent on water from the canal system, according to Gosselin.
“The system is pretty complicated,” Gosselin said, “and has a cascading effect on a whole range of water right holders and others.” [...]
Gosselin said Kunkel Reservoir would “dewater” before the year is out, and a number of shallow wells would go dry due to the loss of seepage. Olive growers on Table Mountain said they need water by May, and cattle ranching operations there are close to selling off their herds or moving them elsewhere.
Kunkle Reservoir is a bird hotspot because it’s a permanent body of water in dry habitat (Lake Oroville can disappear when rainfall is low). An April 26, 2015 (during a severe drought period) eBird checklist for Kunkle has 29 species observations, including Canada geese, cinnamon and green-winged teal, gallinule, great blue heron, and red-winged blackbirds who nest in the tule and cattail thickets lining the water’s edge.
The mitigation lands along Highway 149 that likely will be affected are vernal pool habitat with endemic and endangered plants and aquatic invertebrates like fairy and tadpole shrimp. Some plant species found there have extremely limited distribution and occur primarily in Butte County (e.g. Limnanthes floccosa ssp. californica listed as Endangered by California and Federal Endangered Species Act).
I helped design the mitigation for Highway 149 by documenting the area’s plant and animal resources. I dodged a tornado while surveying the slopes and hydrology to determine how the pools and creeks connected. Part of the evaluation process required identifying potential impacts from the highway widening. Back in the 90s, we weren’t considering “impacts due to climate change” and certainly no one thought about “impacts due to fire destroying the 150 year old flume network.”
The Camp Fire turned off the water supply for the reservoir, aquifers, and vernal pools. This is a world I never imagined.
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* In the second half of this story, I discuss the historic mining in Cherokee.